McGill Podcasts » Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas

The Public Digital Humanities: Panel Discussion

Christophe Philippona — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 18:55:08 +0000

What are the opportunities and challenges that exist for the digital humanities to reach a broader public and to confirm the relevance of the humanities in today’s society?

Pierre Schoentje: The Art and Politics of Irony — Ironie, écologie et écriture de la nature

Cody Rei-Anderson — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:22:29 +0000

Irony makes the world new by putting the world that exists in question. Its strength lies in its destabilizing power—it is the politics of art, the art of politics, and the language of dissent. By enabling critical representations of the world as it is known, but from within and against the familiarity of our own expectations, irony gives art and discourse special kinds of access to the public sphere, especially by mining beneath the given, the actual, and the known. A talk from Pierre Schoentje, Universiteit Gent, presented in French.

Part of the series The Art and Politics of Irony presented by the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas.

Peter Goodrich: The Art and Politics of Irony — Serio ludere: Legal Humanism, Satire and Critique

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:35:55 +0000

Irony makes the world new by putting the world that exists in question. Its strength lies in its destabilizing power—it is the politics of art, the art of politics, and the language of dissent. By enabling critical representations of the world as it is known, but from within and against the familiarity of our own expectations, irony gives art and discourse special kinds of access to the public sphere, especially by mining beneath the given, the actual, and the known. Keynote speech by Peter Goodrich, Yeshiva University.

Part of the series The Art and Politics of Irony presented by the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas.

Charles Foran, City Unique: Montreal in the Life and Imagination of Mordecai Richler

Cody Rei-Anderson — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:23:39 +0000

Mordecai Richler was never more engaged than on the subject of his hometown. In his work he sketched a brilliant comedic canvas of social striving and upward mobility; in his life he cherished the version of Montreal he believed most bold and open, Canada’s only great city. The intersection of the two impulses, in conjunction with the rise of Quebec nationalism, consumed much of his adult life, and came at a cost to his legacy. A lecture about the complex, and as yet unresolved, relationship between a major artist and his society.

Mr. Foran is the author of the recent and much acclaimed biography Mordecai: the Life & Times. Hosted by the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas and the Friends of the Library, in collaboration with the Department of English, the Département de langue et littérature françaises, and the Faculty of Arts Development Office, with support from Benjamin News.

The Public Life of Art in the 21st Century

George He — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:13:34 +0000

An important roundtable discussion among leading artists and thinkers on the place and purpose of art and artistic production, and the relationship between art and scholarship in the modern world.

Panellists: Darin Barney (Art History and Communication Studies, McGill), Margie Gillis (dancer and choreographer), Desmond Manderson (Law, McGill), and Kent Stetson (playwright and novelist)

Moderator: Paul Yachnin (English, McGill)

27 September 2011

Andrew Stewart: Shake, Rattle, and Roll: New Music for the T-Stick Digital Musical Instrument

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:46 +0000

Keynote Lecture/Performance at the conference The Ghost in the Machine: Technologies, Performance, Publics

Tom Beghin: The Virtual Haydn: a New Recording Experience

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:29:25 +0000

Keynote Lecture at the conference The Ghost in the Machine: Technologies, Performance, Publics

Mark Antaki: The Trial of Louis XVI

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:28:04 +0000

The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial of the “major war criminals” of 1945-1946 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 are often understood as opposite sides of the same very modern moral coin: the trial articulating an understanding of supreme wrong and the Declaration a vision of the ultimate good. It is customary to locate one of the origins of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789.

However, the trial of Louis XVI (1792-1793), the opposite side of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, tends not to be identified as an antecedent of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. This lecture will consider the trial of Louis XVI as perhaps the first trial for crimes against humanity, a trial in which the medieval figure of the tyrant begins to give way to the modern figure of the criminal against humanity.

Desmond Manderson: The Trial of Billy Budd

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:27:08 +0000

Herman Melville’s story “Billy Budd” contains one of the most famous trial scenes in US literature. It has given rise to a number of conflicting interpretations which relate to the relationship between legality and legitimacy, or between justice and law. Indeed the story contains surprising connections not only to question about law that have concerned writers for thousands of years, but to particular issues of slavery and judgment that were of immediate concern in 19th century America.

Eugenio Bolongaro: The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:26:34 +0000

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti emigrated from Italy to the US in 1908. They did not meet, however, until 1917 during a strike in which they both participated as anarchist activists. They were accused of the murders of Frederick Parmenter, a paymaster, and Alessandro Berardelli, a security guard, at the Slater-Morrill Shoe Company, in Braintree, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1920. Their trial was heavily politicized, eventually polarizing public opinion and becoming an international “cause celèbre.” The defense strongly argued that the two men were innocent and that the justice system was participating in a political repression of radical dissent.

On August 23, 1927, after a long and vain legal struggle to obtain a new trial, their pardon or, at least, the commutation of the death sentence, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in the electric chair. On the 50th anniversary of their execution, Governor Michael Dukakis, acting on the basis of recommendations from the Massachusetts Office of Legal Counsel, declared August 23, 1977 the Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial Day. In his proclamation, the Governor stated that the two Italian immigrants had been unfairly tried and convicted, and that “any disgrace should be forever removed from their names.” The legal, political and cultural debates provoked by the Sacco and Vanzetti’s case raise fundamental questions about the nature of justice and the role of the legal system in Western democracies.

Carrie Rentschler: The Trial of Winston Moseley

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:25:43 +0000

On March 13, 1964, an Italian-American and lesbian woman named Kitty Genovese was repeatedly stabbed, sexually assaulted and killed by an African-American man, Winston Moseley, in a suburbanized section of Queens, NY. While Moseley was convicted of Genovese’s murder on June 15th that same year, press attention focused on another set of so-called perpetrators of the crime: the 38 people who were said to have seen or heard parts of the assault and failed to call the police. This talk examines how issues of race, class, gender and sexuality impacted the trial and media coverage of this significant case.

Payam Akhavan: The Trial of Slobodan Milošević

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:02:39 +0000

Professor Payam Akhavan (McGill University Faculty of Law) and Westmount Public Library present: The Trial of Slobodan Milošević

The sixth lecture in the Great Trials series hosted by the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas (McGill) at Westmount Public Library. (29 March 2011) Each lecture in the series examined the social and political contexts as well as the cultural consequences of a history-making trial. The series took the position that ‘law’ happens as much outside the courtroom as it does within it, and that each of these pivotal events stands as testament to the ways in which constructions of authority, law, and justice have informed cultural consciousness across centuries.

Brian Lewis: The Trial of Oscar Wilde

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:01:39 +0000

Professor Brian Lewis (McGill Department of History) and Westmount Public Library present: The Trial of Oscar Wilde

The fourth lecture in the Great Trials series hosted by the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas (McGill) at Westmount Public Library. (1 March 2011) Each lecture in the series examined the social and political contexts as well as the cultural consequences of a history-making trial. The series took the position that ‘law’ happens as much outside the courtroom as it does within it, and that each of these pivotal events stands as testament to the ways in which constructions of authority, law, and justice have informed cultural consciousness across centuries.

Paul Yachnin: The Trial of Shylock

Cody Rei-Anderson — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:00:30 +0000

Professor Paul Yachnin (McGill Department of English) and Westmount Public Library present: The Trial of Shylock

The third lecture in the Great Trials series hosted by the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas (McGill) at Westmount Public Library. (15 February 2011) Each lecture in the series examined the social and political contexts as well as the cultural consequences of a history-making trial. The series took the position that ‘law’ happens as much outside the courtroom as it does within it, and that each of these pivotal events stands as testament to the ways in which constructions of authority, law, and justice have informed cultural consciousness across centuries.